Returning Nuance to Nostalgic Group Studies: Understanding White Supremacy as a Hegemonic Force

A dominant analytical frame has emerged in extremism studies that attributes nearly all right wing, far right, or nostalgic group ideology and action to white supremacy. Some versions of this narrative further posit that these extremist groups intentionally and consciously effect white supremacy through a “cohesive social network based on commonly held beliefs,” a “white power movement.” However, these conceptions sometimes lack definitions of social movements, white supremacy, and other key concepts that are central to their arguments.3 This has led to over-generalizations about nostalgic group actors’ motives and goals in a way that downplays both the power of white supremacy as a hegemonic system and the specific harms caused by overtly supremacist actors. This paper clarifies a social science understanding of the key, but sometimes taken-for-granted, terms necessary for understanding these dynamics and demonstrates how faulty or unclear usage of this terminology leads to both analytical problems and the perpetuation of power structures that the field of extremism studies hopes to address. Specifically, I argue that improper conceptualization of white supremacy and related terms creates risks falling into three categories: analytic accuracy and predictive capacity, preventing near-term harm, and perpetuating white supremacy’s power structure and radicalization.